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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Taking the 5th

Brenden Kichton (Spokane Chiefs)

The Wednesday night prospect report was highlighted by New York Ranger and New York Islander prospects taken in the 5th round of the 2011 NHL draft. Each made a contribution to helping their team win a key game as their team is fighting for playoff positioning.

Brenden Kichton (NYI 2011 5th) and his Spokane Chiefs have been struggling as of late; dropping their last 4 games with injuries taking their toll on the team. You would have thought the last team that Spokane needed to see paying them a visit was the Kelowna Rockets who were unbeaten in their last 19 games.

So you know of course that Spokane comes out and shuts out Kelowna 5-0 ending their own losing streak and
ending Kelowna's unbeaten streak. The Chiefs jumped all over the Rockets with a 3 goal first period and just cruised from there.

Kichton was 1-1-2 for the game setting up Todd Fiddler for a 2nd period goal to increase Spokane's lead to 4-0. Kichton then added a goal of his own to put the game out of reach 5-0 also in the 2nd period.

For Kichton, the 2 point effort improved his numbers to 17-45-62 still leading WHL defensemen and 18th overall in the WHL. The Chiefs with the win not only stop their losing streak but pulled to within 1 point of the Tri-City Americans for 4th place in the WHL's Western Conference.

Even better for the Chiefs was that this win was the 1000th win in franchise history for a franchise that joined the WHL in 1985. It was the 1997th game in Chief's history as they are 1000-838-159 (ties, shootout losses or overtime losses).

Shane McColgan (Steve Hiscock)

Shane McColgan (NYR 2011 5th) and his Saskatoon Blades just may have sent the biggest message of the night after they just whipped the Prince Albert Raiders 7-1 for their 6th straight win. At the very least the Blades just may have ended the criticism of their being the host team for the 2013 Memorial Cup.

But even more importantly, the Blades are now legit contenders for the WHL's Central Division after knocking off the Raiders who currently hold the division lead. The Blades jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first period but the Raiders did not look like they were out of this contest.

That is until the 2nd period started and then things got ugly for them thanks to McColgan's line. McColgan's linemate Nathan Burns with a behind the back pass across the offensive zone found McColgan wide open for a goal just 31 seconds into the 2nd period.

It was McColgan's 12th goal of the season and it put the Blades up 3-0 and before they could even finish announcing the goal; the Blades scored again 22 seconds after the McColgan goal to make it 4-0 and the rout was on.

For McColgan this was his 1st goal since January 4th, a span of 13 games and that goal also was against the Raiders. Besides it being the 6th straight win for the Blades, the win pulled them to within 4 points of the Raiders for the division lead and 1 point behind the Red Deer Rebels for 4th place in the Eastern Conference.
Samuel Noreau (NYR 2011 5th) and his Baie-Comeau Drakkar had to be a little embarrassed losing to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan last Saturday night on their home ice. The Drakkar are 25 points ahead of the Titan in the standings and that lost point could mean the difference between finishing 2nd or 4th in the QMJHL standings.

This time the game was on the Titan's home ice and the Drakkar scored 4 times in the game's first 13:29 on their way to a 8-4 win. Noreau did not score but was a +2 and took 6 shots on goal for his Drakkar.

The win allowed the Drakkar to pull within 1 point of the 2nd placed Rimouski Oceanic who lost to Halifax in the shootout 5-4.

It was the battle of the OHL's Eastern Conference cellar dwellers as Peter Ceresnak's (NYR 2011 6th) Peterborough Petes took on the Ottawa 67's. To say this one was very ugly would be too kind as the Petes put up 10 goals to defeat the 67's 10-6.

Ceresnak didn't score but was able to be a +1.

Andrey Pedan (NYI 2011 3rd) and his Guelph Storm were looking to make up ground in the race for 4th place in the OHL's Western Conference standings. They entered the game trailing the Kitchener Rangers by 3 points and held a game in hand.

Guelph would score first but that was about the end of the Guelph highlights as the Rangers would score 3 unanswered goals to take the lead and never looked back as they won 5-2. Pedan was scoreless and a -2 for the game.